About Me

Gerry Dantone is the founder and former coordinator for the Center for Inquiry - Long Island Community and founder & President of Long Island Secular Humanists. He edited the CFI-LI INQUIRER for 11 years and has contributed to Free Inquiry magazine. He has appeared on CNN, FoxNews and local TV and radio. In addition, Gerry Dantone is a singer-songwriter-music producer for his band UniversalDice.com. You may visit their websites, see below.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Inspiration for songs can come from many places; it's nice
when inspiration comes from a loving or some other uplifting source but often
it comes from a place of sadness or outrage.
A story in the news last week reminded me of a song I wrote a few years
back that is as relevant as ever.

This case involves a Muslim community but this practice is
far from universal among Muslims. In fact it is also prevalent in Ethiopia
which has a large Christian population and even existed among Christians in
pre-revolution America but the most common thread is religiously or
ideologically inspired repression of women.
Since the surgery is typically performed on minors unable to give
informed consent, it is a form of abuse, indoctrination and assault. Instead of being a form of religious freedom,
forcing this surgery on a minor is the opposite of freedom for that minor. I would argue that performing unnecessary
surgery of any type, especially one where the intent is to limit or destroy the
ability to enjoy sexual relations as an adult, is perverse and should be
illegal around the world. Instead, in
some communities, it is the expectation.

I would hope that most who read this would never condone
such an act but I think there is an additional thing to consider; the idea that
it is a form of religious freedom for adults, even parents, to force a
religious practice on minors or to indoctrinate them into a religion. That is not religious freedom; instead,
children should be exposed to the evidence and their ability to reason should
be nurtured so that when they become adults, they can make good choices. That is the lesson we can all take from this.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

I have written a number of times on Facebook and on my blog
about the dangers of ideology (and religion, a type of ideology). Included in the dangerous forms of ideology
that I cited were - ALL ideologies, left, right, middle, up and down, religious
and secular.

http://gerrydantone.blogspot.com/2017/05/ideology.html

Today an ideologue shot up a number of Republican
congresspersons and staff practicing for a charity baseball game and
police. He was an ardent supporter of
Bernie Sanders and progressive left wing politics. His problem was that he was an ideologue to
the point where ideological purity became more important to him that the actual
results. It was more important to this
shooter that he remain ideologically pure than do the right thing. Here is a clue: he complained incessantly
about the so-called President - yet did not vote for the only candidate in the
election who could have beat him: he refused to vote for Clinton.

According to the website Heavy, "In August 2016, after
Sanders had lost the Democratic nomination, he posted on Facebook, “I want
Bernie to Win the White House,” along with a petition calling for Sanders to
join the Green Party. He was
anti-Hillary Clinton, according to his Facebook posts. “Bernie is a Progressive, while Hillary is
Republican Lite,” he wrote... In another post he wrote, “#ScreamAsOne
#NeverVotingHill,” and “You’ve been warned DNC. I will NEVER vote Hillary. A
nomination for Hillary equals a win for Trump. #NOTWithHer.”

Now I have no issue with those who think that Mr. Sanders
was the better candidate or that he had a better chance to beat the so-called
President. This may be true. But it is pure ideological insanity to NOT
vote for Clinton then go on a murderous tirade against the victorious
Republicans. If he and other ideologues
had voted for the only other viable alternative, we would not be in this
situation. Thanks for nothing.

If anything, this shooter's actions, besides being
despicable, will only serve to strengthen the hand of the very people he
opposed. But I'm sure he is now in his
ideological heaven and would not care. I
hope he rots.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The so-called President and his surrogates are trying to
make a big deal that Comey has confirmed in his just released statement (6/7/17) to
Congress that he indeed told the so-called President 3 times in private that he was not under
investigation. Of
course, this is irrelevant info that the Administration knows the base will
think is important. They, of course,
WILL think it's important because the so-called President believes, according
to his own stated opinion, they have no ethics or moral grounding. More on that later.

Here is what Comey said to Congress back on March 20,
2017: "I have been authorized by
the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our
counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts
to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating
the nature of any links between individuals associated with the TRUMP CAMPAIGN
and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the
campaign and Russia’s efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation,
this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were
committed."

As you can see, Comey said the investigation was directed at
the Trump Campaign. Duh. Why did he not announce publicly that Trump
was or was not the target? Comey wrote
in his statement today that he "did not tell the President that the FBI
and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that
we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most
importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that
change."

In other words, if something were to change, Comey did not
want to have to announce that the so-called President was now under
investigation.

So the point of the so-called President not being the announced target
is not all that important. His CAMPAIGN
has been the target and has always been the target and no one has said
otherwise. To make a big deal out of
this is to make a big deal out of nothing.

The so-called President's attorney has said "The
President feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to
move forward with his agenda.” Here's
how we will know this is a lie; when the so-called President and his surrogate
do not behave as if they were totally vindicated when Comey testifies.

Finally, the so-called President's supporters will be
unfazed by all of this. They will claim
he is vindicated, the victim of a witch hunt and that this is all fake
news. It does not matter what they say
because, as the so-called President has pointed out, they have no ethics or
moral grounding: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot
somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, ok? It’s, like, incredible.” http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-fifth-avenue-comment/

Why would he think this would be the case? Why would he think that he could commit
murder (if it were self-defense this would hardly be an "incredible"
assertion) and his supporters would not care?
Stupidity might work but more likely it is because the so-called
President believes his supporters have no ethics or morals; what they have is blind
faith. And that's just fine for an
egomaniac and narcissist. Those are HIS words.